I received a call from a 74 year old gentleman who had recently purchased life insurance, and he had a heart attack five years ago with two stents placed.
He was approved for a Table 4 rate with Protective Life for $250,000 of 10 year term through one of the big online life insurance websites.
The big online life insurance websites are not capable of shopping cases like this one effectively, and they offer too few insurance companies to get you best offer.
Like many people do when they are “rated” for life insurance or charged a higher rate than they were expecting, he decided to look for a better offer. The gentleman found our website and gave us a call.
It Pays To Shop After Getting Higher Offer
He answered all of my usual heart attack questions, including the fact that he had an excellent stress test eight months ago, and I was fairly confident we could get him a better offer and possibly longer duration coverage than the 10 year term plan he accepted through Protective Life.
I inquired with all of the “players” that offered a ten year term and longer duration coverage at his age: American General Life, Banner Life, Cincinnati Life, Columbus Life, Genworth Life, John Hancock, Lincoln National, Mass Mutual, Met Life, North American Company for Life & Health, Ohio National, Pacific Life, Penn Mutual, Principal Life, Prudential, Symetra Life, Transamerica, and United of Omaha.
I received a couple “Standard” to Table 2 or 3 verbal offers, and I relayed this information to the gentleman.
He was surprised when I told him he could possibly qualify for a $250,000 policy with a guaranteed level rate and coverage for the rest of his life that could have a lower cost than his 10 year term plan.
Is Getting a Standard Rate After a Heart Attack Really Possible?
I get that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is… but this is not always the case.
I told this gentleman he has nothing to lose. We’ll obtain his medical records and get a more definitive offer.
If a better offer is not ultimately made, then this process won’t cost him a dime.
He really had NOTHING to lose!
He gave me the okay to try for a better offer, and I had him sign forms for the most probable best 10 year term company and the most probable best permanent company.
Obtaining Medical Records Is Key To Our Shopping Success
We ordered his medical records, and upon receipt we verified that the info he provided upfront was fairly accurate. I was expecting great offers to be made.
Important to note: We order medical records on almost every case, so we can easily provide medical information to any other insurance companies later and get other offers very quickly if we need to.
It took a little negotiating, but we were able to get him a new $250,000- 10 year term plan that was $4,056 less per year than what Protective offered.
Even better, we were able to get him a $250,000 policy with a guaranteed level rate and coverage for the rest of his life, and that was still $984 less per year than what Protective offered him for a 10 year term.
He accepted the permanent policy and was extremely happy with the outcome.
How Do You Get a Standard Rate After a Heart Attack?
It’s not easy, and most people who’ve had a heart attack will be “rated” for life insurance.
But even if you can get a Table 2 rate instead of a Table 3 rate, or a Table 3 instead of a Table 4, a Table 4 instead of a Table 5, and each higher table rating equates to about a 25% increase in your cost, you could save thousands of dollars over the life of your policy!
Some things that will likely be required of you before you have any shot of getting best offer possible after a heart attack are:
- All cardiac check ups since the myocardial infarction (MI) must be good with no ongoing chest pain or other issues.
- You will usually have to have had a good stress test within past 12 to 18 months.
- Cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugar will all need to be very good.
- Good height/weight
- Your ejection fraction will need to be 50% or higher and/or you cannot have had significant heart damage caused by the MI.
- The less vessels that had blockages, the better.
- The lesser the percentage of blockage in each vessel, the better.
- The older you are when you had the heart attack, the better.
Had Heart Attack & Want Best Life Insurance Rate, So What Do You Do?
Most importantly, make sure that whatever agent you deal with has access to all of the quality insurance companies, not just 10 or 20.
Also make sure that the agent you apply through has some sort of system to leverage or to negotiate for a better offer, and that they have the ability to “re-shop” your medical history later in case you don’t qualify for the rate you’re expecting.
My guess is that if you ask ANY agent if they can re-shop your case later to other companies, they’ll say “yes”, but the reality is that they probably won’t.
Click on this link if you’d like to get an accurate heart attack life insurance quote emailed to you, and we will search our database of rates from over 121 insurance companies to find you best offer.
Want a Hassle Free Life Insurance Shopping Experience?
Don’t worry, we will never call you unless you ask us to, and we won’t hassle you to buy from us.
We’ve heard the horror stories of what online insurance agents do, calling over and over, which we call “sales harassment.”
We don’t know which industry is worse, life insurance or mortgages, when it comes to sales harassment.
I made the mistake of providing my contact information on bank rate recently when looking for mortgage refinance rates. I had to tell all eight or so people that contacted me that I was only looking and not interested.
We are here to help you, not harass you!
Don’t hesitate to call 1-800-380-3533 or click here to email if you have any questions or if we can help you.